I cannot believe it´s already been another week... my goodness time is flying. I feel like I just barely wrote and everything is the same.. haha I´ll try to think of some stories.

First off, how are each of you? Please keep the pictures of Bentley coming! What a little cutie. Oh I can´t wait to just mush him and love him everyday! So fun. Love all the stories and updates. Why is everybody sick?! Bah! I hope you all get feeling better soon.. that´s no fun. Bec, thank you for your email! It´s so great to hear from you! Oh all you cute faces.. I miss you! But glad to hear everyone is well. How is school and work going? Can you believe it´s February?! Sheesh. Tell me more of what´s happening, alright?

I got a letter from mission ties last week with pictures of baby :) So fun. Thank you! Also, got a letter from Grandma Carol which was so sweet. Thank you, Grandma! I´m still horribly behind on letters so bear with me for a little while...

Well, this week was good! We´re teaching a lot and we have some really good people we´re working with right now. A few.. but we´re struggling with our group right now because nobody is really progressing. And those who are progressing are progressing very very slowly. So it´s been difficult because many are ready and they want to move forward, but they have fear or hold ups somewhere and are not moving. We´ve been trying this week to focus again on finding new people. We´re working in different areas and different neighborhoods to try to find people who are ready for the Gospel, but it´s proving to be a very difficult task. So so many people we talked to this week either have already met with the missionaries and aren´t interested, or met with the missionaries and think it´s all good but aren´t willing to change, or are already baptized and have left the church for various reasons... bah. It´s been a challenge. But not a challenge that we can´t handle with the Lord´s help. So we´re just striving to do everything we need to be doing in order to be worthy of the Lord´s help so that we can find the right people and really begin to do what we´ve been sent here to do.

I´ve been studying a lot about faith this week. And been doing a lot of searching.. searching my heart, searching the scriptures. My companion and I have been talking a lot this week about how we can have more `fogo nos ossos´ or fire in the bones´.. how we can have more desire and passion to be doing what we´re doing. Some days we´ve been walking around just doing what we need to do, without really remembering why exactly we´re doing it, or remembering how important this work is. That´s been a lot of our focus this week is trying to really focus on what we´re doing and how we can best help this people. To genuinely lose ourself in this work, so begin to love the people more fully, and to be in tune enough with the Spirit to know how to help them. It´s a work in progress. Hopefully this week we´ll get better.

This morning we studied a talk called ´´A Four Missionary´´ (I think) and it´s so powerful! It talks all about becoming who we want to be. To creating a vision of the kind of person we want to be, and then acting on the vision and doing everything we can to strive to be that person every day, every moment, in everything that we do. And as we do that, then soon it will become our nature and we´ll genuinely be that person. I´m going to be focusing on that this week as well.. really striving everyday to become the kind of missionary I thought I would be and that I want to be.

Man, I´m boring this week! Sorry... I´m completely exhausted in every way :)

I finally tried matte (not sure how to spell it..) yesterday.. it´s a drink here that EVERYONE drinks all the time. I dont know how to explain it very well.. (lookit up on google), but it´s essentially this green herb or plant stuff that they put in these certain type of cups and then hot water and drink it... horrible explanation haha sorry. Look it up. But it´s the thing here. And everyone just passes it around and drinks out of it. So yesterday we were at a member´s house and they made me try it... they were trying to explain exactly what the green stuff was, and ignorant me was pointing outside at the grass and asking how to say that because it looks like shredded up grass... when they realized what I was getting at the whole room was rolling and saying, no no no no! You can´t call it that! Apparently it´s very offensive to the Gauchan (I don´t think that´s a word...) culture to say they´re drinking grass, `the food of cows´as they said... haha oops :) But I tasted it.. and it is grass. I´m convinced. Looks and tastes like grass. It´s gross. But, it´s a huge part of the culture, so I had to try it. Maybe one day I´ll learn to like it..... then I´ll be a true Gaucha!

I think we´re going to start teaching English this week... hoping it´ll help us find new people! I have no idea how to teach english though... it´ll be an adventure! I´ve also been asked to teach a few members how to play the piano... we´ll have to see how that goes too!

Okay, going to cut it here because I´m just as boring as boring can be. I´ll send some pictures to make up for it :)

I love you, cute family! I pray for you every day. I hope you can feel my love and prayers being sent your way! You are the best ever examples to me. Thank you for your faith! You are an inspiration to me and I look to your letters and examples often for advice and how to handle situations. You are such a blessing to me! I LOVE YOU! Have a most wonderful week!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Can you believe it´s already been a week? I can´t! Holy cow it went fast. So great to hear from you all! Thank you all for your emails and love and support! And to the friends that emailed, thank you!! I love to hear from you as well. You are welcome to email me as often as you´d like, I just can´t reply. I´ll do my best to get letters sent back in reply when I can! I´m horribly behind on letters... there´s just not enough time in the day, I tell ya what. But I´m working on it, so be patient with me :)

Okay, Bentley is the cutest thing in the world!!!! Oh, I´m gonna die he´s so darling!!!!! I just wanna squeeze him!!!!! Oh, so so so darling. I love all the stories and pictures!! Please keep them coming! Ahhh so cute! I´m just gushing on the inside right now. Take all the pictures you can! And Kels, just go ahead and plan on having another baby in about a year and half when I get home, okay? :)

Glad it´s warming up for you guys! Oh how I envy the fact that you have winter right now... I am beyond excited for the day when it cools down here! Skiing sounds like it was a blast!

I have to admit, I miss the CTM for one reason and that´s I miss getting letters from my cute family throughout the week! It was the best! But, I´m learning to be patient with letters I suppose :) Mom, after emailing yesterday, I got a letter from you!!! We ran into the Elders on the street and it was the best surprise to get a letter! Thank you!!!! I sent one to Missionties today so hopefully you´ll get that through your email in about a week when it arrives there. Watch for it to come through!

Okay, my turn I guess? This week has been good! Really good. It went so fast! But things are definitely getting better. Each day it gets better, I feel more comfortable, I understand more, I speak a little more. Each day gets better. It is definitely still a rollercoaster, and there´s ups and downs throughout every single day. My emotions are very much so closer to the surface here in the field haha :) But it´s great. Everything is going really well.

It´s hot hot hot hot hot here. There were a few days this week where it had to be close to 100 degrees, zero wind, and a blazing sun. Carumba. ´Ta loco. We were a little concerned about fast sunday to say the least, because walking around in that kind of heat all day without water is not safe.... so we prayed for rain, multiple times leading up to the weekend. Let´s just say, Heavenly Father answers prayers! Saturday it rained almost all day and cooled everything down which was the biggest blessing. But it wasn´t a ton of rain, just rained a little here and there throughout the day. Sunday we woke up and everything was still wet and overcast but it wasn´t raining. I figured we were just going to be walking a few houses to make sure our investigators were going to come to church, to the chapel and back and we´d be fine without an umbrella........ Oops! We got to our first investigators house and it started to sprinkle.. we stood under a tree and thought we´d be fine... then we started walking to the next house when I swear the heavens opened and dumped down every drop of rain they had. It was out of control. We rain to a member´s house and were literally dripping when we got there after just a couple of minutes. But, we had work to do, so we braved it, linked arms, and ran back outside to the next house! After talking to all the people and ensuring a way for everyone to get to church we were soaked from head to toe. Literally as if we had jumped in a pool. Everything was wet. So, we laughed our way through the streets back to our house, quickly changed into dry clothes, and went on our merry way to church with wet hair, no makeup, and a big smile on our faces because all of our investigators came to church :) What a day! So just remember, if you ask Heavenly Father for something, be prepared to receive it :)

We are trying hard to turn things around here. And the ward is finally jumping on board and helping us! I think they finally saw that we are actually here to work and want to help this ward, and so we´ve finally received support and enthusiasm from them which is going to help tremendously.

We´ve found some great people here who are ready for the gospel in their lives! We´ve got a good group of people to teach now, which makes the days much better. Still always looking for more though. It´s been great to teach more and see people really start to open up to the gospel.

Dad, you had mentioned something to me in a letter a while back about missionaries in some areas knocking on doors and asking to leave a blessing on their home and just saying a prayer with them. It´s a great way to work because people are more willing to listen to something like that! We do something similar here, just me and my companion, I don´t think many others do this. But we both were blessed with half way decent singing abilities, so we knock (or rather clap outside the gate) and explain we´re missionaries and what we´re doing, and that we would like to sing a hymn for them. So we go in sing a hymn, say a prayer blessing their family, and ask to return another day to share a message. It seems to be really effective and has helped us talk to a lot of people! Any fear I had of singing in front of people is gone now haha.

Other news.... we´re excited to finally have money to be food! Haha we were waiting for our funds to come through forever and the bank is forever away and can only be used on P Day, so we´ve been scrounging to get by. But we have money now so we´re excited about that :)

All is well here in Brazil. It´s all starting to feel a little more normal and a little more like home :) Day by day, that´s the key.

I am grateful and excited to be here. It´s not easy, I promise you that. But it´s worth it. That´s the promise, right? I can already feel things changing within me and I´m excited for this time in my life. There´s some very special people here. I know Heavenly Father is a part of every detail of our lives and He watches over each of us very closely.

I love you, family! With all my heart! I pray for you everyday. I pray you are well and happy and being blessed with all the things you need :)